Teacher survey could help improve schools

Lafayette Parish School Board member Greg Awbrey's idea to create a survey on discipline problems in the classroom is an excellent one.

It would provide a way to learn what teachers see as problems, whether there are concentrations of disruptive students at certain schools and whether teachers feel discipline policies are working. It would also be an opportunity for teachers to express their concerns anonymously.

While all appear to agree it's a good idea, there is disagreement as to how such a survey should be administered.

At the last school board meeting, Awbrey presented a sample survey he had previously composed. It is still a work in progress, Awbrey told The Daily Advertiser on Tuesday. He said he welcomes input from anyone who would like suggest questions. He plans to present the updated survey at the May 15 school board meeting for approval.

The questions are based on complaints he and other school board members have received from parents and teachers, Awbrey said.

Superintendent of Schools Pat Cooper said a survey is a "great idea," but that he believes it should be composed and administered by "people who do that for a living" - the Cecil Picard Early Childhood Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, for example.

He favors a survey if it's based on scientific methodology and "if it's done in a way that will give us information that will help us make proper changes," Cooper said.

He also objects to the way questions on the current survey are worded, saying they are prejudicial and target school principals.

There is merit in using a neutral third party to administer the survey. It would help to remove any questions of bias. It would also put another layer between those who answer the questions and those who compile the information, further protecting anonymity.

But Awbrey objects to the idea, saying that he fears it would get watered down.

"I don't want it to be generic," he said, adding that he wants it to be based on the complaints he has heard from teachers and parents

Sample questions from the original questionnaire include "Of all the students in your classroom, how many are habitually disruptive?" The survey also asks "Do you feel safe at school?" and "Have you been told not to notify the office when you have a disruptive student?"

The survey includes a space for written comments.

There is no doubt it is time to hear from the people who work every day in the classrooms of the Lafayette Parish school district.

We have heard from only a few, most notably, Abby Breaux, who tearfully enumerated during a school board meeting the reasons she was leaving teaching and said that teachers are too afraid of reprisals to speak out about conditions in their schools.

An anonymous survey would provide teachers the perfect platform. Such a survey could give the school board and administrators information they need to address problems in a way that may be more effective in bringing about needed changes in local schools.

How the survey will be created and distributed is still the big question.

Awbrey has a solution: Why not do both?

"Let the Picard Center survey them, too," he said.

We suggest a compromise.

Let the Picard Center or some other third party create a survey based on input from school board members and Cooper's administration, subject to approval by the school board, which can decide whether it holds true to the purpose of improving conditions at school.

The school year is drawing to a close. There is no time to make changes in discipline policy or how it is implemented this year.

But there is plenty of time over the summer to analyze and digest the results of a teacher survey and to devise a plan that could help the 2013-14 school year get off to a better start than the last one.

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Teacher survey could help improve schools

Lafayette Parish School Board member Greg Awbrey's idea to create a survey on discipline problems in the classroom is an excellent one.

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